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A Physicist’s Nightmare of the Void

An attempt to explain the origins of the universe leads to a haunting vision of nothingness

By

Frank Wilczek

Aug. 24, 2016 9:39 a.m. ET

Looking up at the summer sky, it is the luminous moon, the brilliant stars and the occasional meteor that draw our attention. Human beings are visual creatures, and we build our everyday model of the world based on what we see.

Because visible light, our primary messenger from external reality, spreads in straight lines through space, when it is devoid of visible matter, we find it natural to regard space itself as empty. But unaided vision is blind to many things, starting with air. Why should it be surprising that a...